GC 2009: Shaun White: World Stage Hands-on

Share.

Ubisoft takes the fundamental controls of Road Trip and adds in a whole lot of new content.

By Matt Casamassina

Third-party Ubisoft demonstrated a "near-final" build of Shaun White Snowboarding: World Stage at its booth from Gamescom in Cologne, Germany this week. The game itself incorporates the fundamentally sound play controls from its predecessor, Road Trip, and showers them all with a wide spectrum of fresh content, including more stages, new characters, greater rewards, an achievements and leaderboard system, and a more fleshed-out multiplayer experience.

World Stage follows White and friends as they travel the globe in search of the next big slope to shred or the competition to win. As a result, the main interface is set to the backdrop of an airport. You'll be able to travel to eight unique countries, including America, France, Canada, Japan and Italy, as you progress through the single-player mode. Meanwhile, you'll also earn rewards -- new clothes and more than 50 snowboards, not to mention decals -- that will inevitably show up as gear in the airport interface. According to Ubisoft, these additions are purely for aesthetics -- so you can look cool while shredding -- but they don't actually affect the way you play. You'll also begin the game with eight characters but will eventually unlock up to 13, including White himself.

The developer has created 25 slopes to explore this time around and the big difference over last year's game is that each course has multiple events tied to it. So you'll be able to free ride, obviously, but you can also compete in contests of big air, tricks, or even tricks versus time. Some of the levels are called exotic locales because they are inspired by the temporary snowboarding rail jump erected in San Francisco. It's in the game. Additionally, you'll discover a half-pipe in Times Square, which looks fabulous since you can see the huge, sprawling city in the backdrop; a rail jump in Paris and even a half pipe in London. Whether exotic or not, Ubisoft reps said that all of the stages will be more relentlessly action oriented, filled with big jumps and major air opportunities.

Controls are the same. You can take to the Balance Board again but due to Nintendo's own hardware restrictions, you still won't be able to hook up four Boards when playing against friends. Rather, someone can play on the device and the remaining three will instead race with Wii remotes. Controller in hand, all you do is twist it left and right as if turning a key in lock in order to shred in those directions respectively. Hold the A button down to gain speed. Flick up to jump. And hold A and B midair while turning to effect tricks. Very straightforward, but I like the configuration. It actually reminds me of EA's forthcoming Need for Speed Nitro, which utilizes a similar control method, also successfully.

World Stage will include a full achievements system for the single-player mode. Unfortunately, these achievements cannot be shared across WiiConnect24 in order to encourage competition. Rather, they are designed purely for local play against friends and family members. In contrast, the title does boast an online leaderboards system so that you can at least post your best times and scores for all those in the Nintendo community to see.

As was true of the first game, World Stage brandishes a great sense of speed as you race down slopes, shred around corners and take big jumps. Not only do the levels zip by via a cinematic fish-eye view, but the texture work is clean and the slope designs colorful. They also boast great lighting and particle effects. If you take a dive into the snow, the flakes will build up on your gear and particles will temporarily spatter the screen. I also noticed new quarter-pipes thrown into level designs so that you can rock out a trick or two on your way to the bottom.

I toyed around with a two-player game -- my competitor stood atop the Balance Board -- and it seemed straightforward, but fun. The biggest issue with the experience was that the framerate, normally rock solid in the single-player mode, definitely took a noticeable hit in the multiplayer one.

Shaun White hits Wii this November. Look out for more IGN coverage in the near future.